The Hindu : New Delhi News : Preventing cyber crimes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 18, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Preventing cyber crimes

AFTER MAKING the first couple of arrests in the multi-media messaging scandal involving two school children, the Delhi police are yet to comprehend how the video clipping spread like wildfire even as a raging debate about the impact of modern technology on ethics in society was under way. While the police seem adequately equipped to deal with such cases, a section of the media somehow went to town sensationalising the incident rather than initiating a serious debate on the moral fall-out of the episode.

For their part, the police have come a long way in dealing with cyber crimes. Four years ago, a police officer frowned when a person complained that his Internet time had been stolen. Since then they have been able to crack most cases of cyber crimes reported in the Capital. Officers from the level of sub-inspectors upward now have a fair amount of knowledge about computer technology. Overall it can be said that the police are proceeding in the right direction.

One way of dealing with a crime is by preventing it. A question could well be asked: Could the police have taken cognisance when the latest episode was initially splashed in the media and prevented further circulation of the clipping? Perhaps the picture would become much clear as and when the police are able to find out who exactly transferred the clipping on to a compact disc and floated it in the market. The electronic media really took up the case in a big way only after the CDs were available in the market.

The only ones who did not seem to care about "culture and tradition" were the faceless people who bought and sold those CDs. The CDs would have sold anyway but the repeated coverage by the media did act as surrogate advertisement.

Clearly, the episode could have been handled in a more discreet manner. Contrast this with discussions on how "our culture and values were in danger", which begin almost simultaneously after every such episode comes to light. The purpose of the latter seems to be defeated at the very outset by such shallow presentation.

Meanwhile, amid all the problems teenagers are facing these days due to over-exposure to sex and violence from various sources, raising awareness among them is often suggested as the panacea. But the question is who will take up the task?

Parents claim they do not have the time and that the schools should see to it that their children cultivate the right values. Schools say that students are spending more time outside schools and that the parents try to fill their absence by stuffing them with the latest gizmos. So they cannot be held responsible.

The success of the counsellor can also be limited. After all, the child is already burdened with more than a couple of coaching classes, apart from school hours. At the end of the day, therefore, a perception is definitely created that nobody is ready to take the responsibility of the growing child. This leads to another question: do all these people have the time, or the inclination, to take up such responsibilities?

It is this classic dilemma of life in a consumerism-driven metropolis which shows no signs of ending any time sooner. The reality may lie somewhere in between but different agencies seem to be living off various aspects of the insecurities today's families are faced with. And all that the sensational handling of such episodes does is to add to that panic in the minds of an already confused society.

Prashant Pandey

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